My children would not eat their suggested menus - even though they love vegetables and eat pretty well - and I'm shocked they seem to think 16 to 30 minutes is a reasonable time to spend making a packed lunch! Has the person who made up these menus ever tried to get 2 or 3 children ready for school while breastfeeding a baby? Half an hour a lunch is ludicrous.

Ds would usually have something like ham sandwich (wholemeal bread and nice ham ), pieces of tomato, cucumber and red pepper, some sort of fruit (e.g. grapes, strawberries, apple), a carton of fruit juice, and a small cake/flapjack.

DS2 today has takena cheese and brown sauce sandwich - the only type he will eat from a lunchbox - he'll eat different fillings at home just not at school so they probably do think 'poor child, give him something different!'an appleapple juicecarrot sticksAND 2 jaffa cakes!!

He also has two fruit snacks through the day at school, one with milk, access to water all day. He'll probably has pasta or something and veg for tea. SO I really don't think 2 jaffa cakes is that bad when taken as part of his whole daily diet

IMO the lunchboxes I do are no less healthy than the school meals. If I used the suggested menus in that link ds2 wouldn't eat any of his lunch. He would rather go hungry. I note they are suggesting fromage frais, which usually contains plenty of sugar.

Can i be the first to start ranting about this fixation with lunchbox contents and "good" foods and "bad" foods and having lunchboxes "checked", being a good way of instilling a really unhealthy relationship with food in small children, setting them up for a lifetime of food guilt and yoyo dieting?

-A wholemeal martime or jam sandwich or breadsticks and hommous-vegetable sticks (cucumber, carrot or pepper)-fruit (different one every day)-yoghurt-juice-sometimes a dried fruit bar or an home made biscuit or mini banana muffin

I do think that a lot of kids have terrible lunch boxes - I don't think DDs is any great shakes (she is really fussy) but dinner ladies have told me they wished all children's were as good. My neighbour who is a TA said that in her school, a lot of the kids just come with crisps and chocolate and they have to sensitively try and educate the parents.

I think the problem with samples menus like the one linked to makes it look like such a faff that it is easier not to bother wheras if you said to parents stick to the healthy basics, more of them might tackle it.

a home made vegetable pasty (either with any veg I have in fridge or "mediterranean" with tomato sauce, veg and italian herbs.

or

home made quiche (plain cheese or spinach)

or

1 flask of soup (for DD1 and Ds2 only as they can open it without scalding themselves)

+

1 dairy (piece of cheese or any yougurt I have)unless they have got something cheesy already, like cheese sandwich or quiche in which case they are likely to get an extra fruit or a biscuit or cereal bar)

+ two pieces of fruit/veg (just 1 for DS3 as he gets a fruit from school in the morning) either fresh, canned (pinapple) or dry. +(not every day) a cereal bar or a couple of biscuits.

It's wonderfully funny when the school dinners are far from perfect. Throw all the attention onto packed lunches to distract from sweet puddings every day, not enough fruit and pizza, chips, coated formed fish more often than they should have them.

DS's school does not have school dinners and I have to admit, having seen some of the lunchbox contents, I am not that shocked at the BBC's contents. DS's teachers had made a point of commenting on the healthiness of Ds's lunchbox and we don't go anywhere near the suggestions on that site, we do sandwiches and houmous and carrots and plain yoghurt. I have seen boxes full of packaged foods - crisps and chocolate and sweets and lunchables.

I think when you are someone who tries to send healthy food, it is hard to imagine that most people don't do the same but I think it is sadly the case.

The advice is bollocks though. Throwing out things like full fat cheese and yohurt, advertising low fat substitutes is atrocious, IMO>

Franca, so do I! I think that so long as ds has had some healthy savoury items (including salad/veg etc) there is no reason why he can't also have a cake. Although I do try to provide home-made stuff rather than very processed foods.